As some of you may be aware, we will be participating in the District Orange shirt day on Thursday to honour and empathize with the families and communities impacted by the tragic discovery in Kamloops last week.  We would encourage students/staff to wear orange on that day, whether it is a t-shirt, orange shirt cut out or orange ribbon, etc.

As a District, we will also be holding a moment of silence on that day at 9:45am and doing some activities. These activities include:
– a video presentation put together by our Indigenous Education Center that all students will be watching simultaneously in our school. The presentation will include an opening by our Superintendent Stephen Petrucci, Indigenous component, SD 60 Spirit of the Peace Drummers (prayer song), SD 60 Spirit of the Peace Jingle Dancers (healing dance)
– Students are colouring symbols of orange hearts and feathers and we will be displaying these.

Through the guidance of our Indigenous Education department, we are mindful that our first priority when approaching this is the well-being of our students. While this discovery will be traumatic for many people, we will be mindful of an approach that is age appropriate. It may be helpful for families to have conversations at home before Thursday to help students understand and process the event.